Slayers Snippets
by Lil' Dinky
Summary: Random one shot, non-related fluff/romance/angst stories about the Slayers characters. I support the traditional pairings L/G, Z/A, X/F....Any reviews or flames welcome!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers or any of the characters. I wish I owned Zelgadis, though.

**A Good Night.**

"Oh, this is great," Lina seethed. She'd only moved closer to Gourry because the fire was dying, the night air was getting chillier, and his bulk blocked the wind. And no sooner had she scooted over and laid close to his side did he roll over and drape one brawny arm across her stomach.

Lina started to gather a fireball, ready to blow him into next month, when the unconscious, slumbering swordsman pulled her in to him a little tighter. Lina froze as his loud snores tickled the top of her head, and the warmth from his long legs seeped into her own. The fireball fizzled and died in her hands as she contemplated the situation.

Gourry's hulking body was shielding her from the wind. And he was warm. And he smelled really good. And his arm wasn't invading anywhere **too **intimate. And the heavy snores meant that he was really and truly asleep. So…

So, Lina turned into his warmth and snuggled deeply into Gourry's chest, breathing in his scent and warming her cold hands on his nicely muscled chest. She could always throw a fireball at him in the morning, she thought lazily as she drifted off to sleep.

Gourry's heavy snores tapered off as Lina's breaths became slow and deep. Grinning slightly to himself, he opened his blue eyes and looked down at the top of Lina's fiery red head. Getting close to Lina was a gamble, and his only real chance at it was when she thought he was asleep. Naturally, he'd perfected his fake snoring and gave it a shot whenever the opportunity arose. More often than not, it earned him a fireball—or a dragon slave if he accidentally landed his hand somewhere inappropriate. All the fireballs she could throw at him were worth it, though, on nights like tonight.

Slowly, so as not to disturb her, Gourry planted a soft kiss on the top of Lina's small head. He smiled down at her sleeping body snuggled tightly into his own.

Yeah, tonight was definitely worth the fireball he was sure to get in the morning.


	2. Backfiring Kiss?

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers!! But I dream about Zelgadis...

**Backfiring Kiss?**

It had just been a stupid prank. A stupid little thing that was supposed to confuse and upset Filia, not him! So why, why, WHY was he the one constantly thinking about?

Xellos had made his daily trip to Filia's quaint little shop yesterday, for the usual taunting and teasing. Filia really did provide the most excellent meals for the most minimal effort on the monster-priest's part. And how he loved to make her angry!

That day, that fateful day that had ruined all of Xellos' fun, Filia had been in a particularly touchy mood. Xellos didn't have to do anything more than appear in her shop to cause her tail to pop out. So, naturally, he had to push the limits to see just how angry he could make her.

Just a few teasing remarks about her "quaint little shop" and her inability to control her temper OR her tail, and Filia was in a towering rage. Whipping out her mace, she charged Xellos, demanding that he leave her shop this instant and never come near her again!

But, oh! Why couldn't he stop thinking about what happened next?!

Xellos easily and expertly avoided all her attacks, causing her to smash half of her shop without realizing it. Xellos merely laughed at her, thoroughly enjoying watching her. Her cheeks were pink with anger, her long, golden hair flew around her as she moved, her cornflower blue eyes were narrowed with rage—in short she was absolutely and perfectly beautiful in her fury. And the strength of her negative emotions was enough to make Xellos almost drunk.

"Xellos, you filthy monster!" she screamed at him as he skipped away yet again. "Stop dodging like a coward! Stand still and fight me!"

Maybe it was the overwhelming energy he'd absorbed from her. Maybe it was her beautiful and perfect wrath. Xellos suddenly caught Filia by the arms, pinning her back against a wall of pottery.

"Like this?" he queried with a smug smirk. Filia opened her mouth to protest, to struggle, and Xellos kissed her.

Not just a quick peck either. A long, deep, satisfying type of kiss that started out as only something to enrage Filia, but quickly became something much more. Xellos wasn't even sure how long he'd stood there, lost in that kiss, before he abruptly came to his senses and teleported back to the astral plane.

Nothing like this had ever happened to Xellos before. He had never once been caught by his own teasing, and yet now he couldn't stop thinking about kissing Filia! A dragon! What had possessed him to do it in the first place?

May everything unholy help him! He was going to go back to that shop today, to Filia. He couldn't stay away from that perfectly delicious anger. Or those perfectly delicious lips.

Author's Note: Well, no reviews or flames so far. So, should I write one for my beloved Zelgadis and Amelia? Or something angsty? ... hmmm...


	3. Little Miss Sunshine?

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN SLAYERS. I wish I did, because then I could order Zelgadis to snuggle with me!!

**Little Miss Sunshine**

Zelgadis had never been more mortified in his entire life. The one time, the one girl he had ever allowed himself to show an interest in had turned out to be a man. Damn that false clue to the Claire Bible. And damn that "princess" Miwan!

Lina wasn't about to let him live it down any time soon.

"Aw, Zelly," Lina crooned as she paused in the battle she and Gourry were waging against tonight's dinner. "Still mooning over your lost love?"

Zelgadis scowled heavily, turning his back on everyone at the table. "Stop being ridiculous, Lina," he growled.

Lina just giggled and poked him in the back a few times. "Oh, come on Mr. Zelga-bunny! Cheer up! You'll find another girl to show off to someday. Just make sure you know she's really a girl first!"

Zelgadis' scowl grew even fiercer, and his grip on the handle of his coffee cup grew dangerously tight. He could almost feel the porcelain groaning under his stone fingers. Xellos kept smiling that awful, mocking smile at him, and Zel felt like wiping that stupid smirk off with a Gaav Flare. Amelia ate in silence, which he was grateful for. He didn't feel up to dealing with one of her annoying Justice and Love speeches right now. Lina's mocking was enough.

Goury paused in stuffing his face and grew momentarily meditative.

"Well, you know, he did make a pretty hot chick. I mean, he had a better figure than you do, Lina," he said innocently.

Lina grabbed the unfortunate swordsman by his neck and proceeded to pound his head savagely into the table.

"Whaddya mean, a better figure than me?!" she screeched as Gourry pleaded for mercy. "I have a perfect, petite figure! And his were fake, FAKE!"

"This is ridiculous!" Zelgadis seethed as he slammed his coffee cup down. Angrily, he strode out of the inn for some much needed peace and fresh air.

The night breeze was cool and refreshing. Zelgadis sat down on a large boulder at the edge of a small pond. The full moon was reflected in the calm, still water as Zelgadis stared down at his own freakish reflection. The well-known feelings of regret, loathing, and hate swam to the surface, and he almost welcomed their familiarity. They certainly felt more comfortable to him than embarrassment.

"Um, Mr. Zelgadis? I brought you some coffee," said a quiet, gentle voice behind him. Zelgadis groaned silently. He really didn't want to deal with Amelia and her puppy-love crush tonight. Amelia came and sat next to him, apparently oblivious to his annoyance.

'_Oh well_,' Zelgadis thought as he took the cup filled with steaming hot coffee. '_She'll get the hint soon enough_.'

He turned away from her so that she couldn't really see his face and sipped silently at his drink. Amelia seemed not to mind, tucking her legs up under her chin and staring at their reflections in the moonlight. She sighed.

"I'm really sorry about you and Miwan," she finally said quietly, breaking their long silence. Zelgadis felt his cheeks heat up with a blush as embarrassment flooded back. Damn her!

"I keep telling all of you, it wasn't like that!" he ground out, annoyed.

"Mm," Amelia neither agreed nor disagreed, which only annoyed him more. They sat in silence again, Zelgadis sipping his coffee with studied nonchalance, willing her to go away.

Amelia was the first to break the silence again. "What did you like about her- uh, him?" she suddenly asked.

"I didn't like her!" Zelgadis burst out. "She needed my help. I just felt sorry for her. It was just, she was so trapped by her life. I mean his life…"

Yes, that was it. He hadn't really been attracted to the girl-man. He'd just recognized the same feelings in Miwan that he had himself. Miwan was trapped by his position, and in reality, his body, the same as Zelgadis was trapped in his hated body. So he hadn't had a thing for a man. Ha! Take that, Lina Inverse.

Amelia sighed, nodding. "I know how that feels," she murmured.

A thousand acerbic comments crowded into Zelgadis' head as he turned to give the princess a scathing look. Her, little miss sunshine, miss justice and beauty, know how it feels to be trapped? The caustic remark he was about to utter died on his tongue at the uncharacteristic look of pensive sadness on Amelia's pretty face.

"It's silly of me, I know. I'm grateful for all I have," she continued, looking out over the calm water. "But I can't help but be envious of you, Mr. Zelgadis, and Miss Lina and Mr. Gourry. Your lives are your own. You can go where you want, do what you want. There are no responsibilities hanging over your heads except the ones you choose to put there. You're…free."

"I can hardly be free in this body, Amelia," Zelgadis ground out, his voice harsh with bitterness.

Amelia laughed quietly, but it was a sad sound. "Oh, Mr. Zelgadis, I'll never understand why you hate your body so much. I've seen so many times it's saved your life- saved all of our lives. And it really doesn't stop you from doing what you want."

She paused as he glared furiously at her. "Okay, so you hate your body. But you're still free to be whatever you want to make of yourself. But me- I'm the crown princess of Seyruun. I don't get a say in my future. Being able to travel like this, with Miss Lina, and Mr. Gourry, and you, Mr. Zelgadis, it's almost like a dream. Because I know it will end for good sometime, and I'll be back in the palace, doing what I was born to do. I wish I could keep going like this, fighting for Justice for real, instead of with peace treaties and political intrigues."

"Then why don't you?" Zelgadis asked. His coffee was cooling in his mug, forgotten. Amelia's candid confessions had surprised him. She'd never let on that she saw her royalty, her life, as a burden before. Zelgadis had to admit to himself that he'd never given her credit for being anything but an obnoxiously cheerful, somewhat blundering, justice-spouting little daddy's girl. Perhaps he had been harsh to judge her as so.

Amelia shook her head, a very small, sad smile playing around the edges of her soft mouth.

"It doesn't work that way," she answered. Zelgadis' sharp hearing picked up a faint trace of bitterness in her voice. "After Mother died, my sister disappeared. Gracia always blamed herself, you know, because the assassin that killed my mother had really been targeting her. She couldn't stand seeing my grief, or Daddy's, so she ran away. And then Uncle Randy, and Cousin Alfred, when they…then Uncle Christopher gave up his claim to the throne. I'm the last one left of our bloodline. Daddy's counting on me to rule Seyruun with a heart full of justice and love. He's been hurt so much; I can't let him down."

Zelgadis was silent. He'd never thought about what her life must have been like, growing up in the royal house of Seyruun, where assassinations and betrayal were a way of life. For the first time, he thought her sunny disposition amazing, in light of what she'd been through, rather than just irritating.

Amelia sighed heavily. "I'll have to go home sooner or later and accept fate. All my duties as princess…and someday the council will arrange a marriage for me to some nobleman or other to strengthen Seyruun's position…that's the future waiting for me Oh, I know how it feels to be trapped, Mr. Zelgadis."

Married to some noble or other--? Zelgadis felt a sickening heaviness in his gut at the thought of sweet, pretty Amelia married off to some stranger just for the sake of a political alliance. Dark Lords, she was more trapped by a cruel life than he could possibly be by his monstrous body. How could she be so cheerful knowing what was expected of her?

"So," Amelia continued, false brightness in her voice, "it'll be nice to have all these memories of traveling together to remember someday. I'm glad I got to meet you, Mr. Zelgadis, even if you think you're a monster. I hope you come to visit Seyruun sometime when I'm Queen."

Zelgadis frowned heavily. She was so accepting of a future she obviously didn't want!

"You can change your own future, Amelia," he told her quietly, looking into her shadowed face.

Amelia laughed, a hollow sound.

"The only way I can change my future is to run away from it," she answered seriously. "And I'm not going to run away."

Zelgadis watched her as she stood up and walked silently back to the inn. He didn't know why she'd opened up to him like that, but he did know he thought about the little princess in a whole new way. She was more than the naively blissful spoiled princess he'd taken her for.

He stared down into the blackness of his cold coffee. By the gods, Amelia had a strength that most people would never recognize. She faced her destiny with a smile, never complaining or asking for help, never with bitterness. It was more than Zelgadis himself could do.

An image of Amelia's smiling, beautiful face danced through his thoughts, illuminating the gloomy recesses of his mind. Maybe she was right, and her future was already set. Maybe all she had was these few weeks of freedom. Zelgadis found himself wanting to protect that fragile happiness for her. He wanted Amelia to have her freedom and her joy for as long as he could give them to her.

Zelgadis stood up and poured his cold coffee onto the ground. If all she had was now, he would do whatever it took to give the princess this small slice of joy. His Amelia deserved that.

He only wished he could do more.

**AN: _Okay, so this didn't turn out like I was hoping it would. Totally not fluffy enough for me...I'll try harder next time!!_**


	4. Slugs

**AN: **_Finally, an update! Anyway, I don't own Slayers...WAAHH!! I want Zelgadis!! _

_Okay, so here's another little fluffy L/G mini story for ya'll to enjoy!! _

**Slugs**

"Iiiiiyaaaaaa!!"

Gourry jerked awake to the unusual sound of Lina's panicked screaming. Rising to his feet in one swift, fluid motion, he jerked his sword out of its scabbard and scanned the campsite for their attacker. He expected a higher-level monster at least, given the terrified pitch of Lina's screams, but the flickering light from the dying fire revealed nothing.

"What's going on, Lina?" he asked, confused. Lina just kept screaming. Worriedly, Gourry knelt by her side and grabbed her shoulders.

"Hey, Lina! What's the matter?" he asked, nearly shouting to be heard over her screams. Lina was really starting to scare him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her so frightened. His eyes followed her shaking finger to the spot she pointed at.

There, on her blanket, sat a fat, slimy slug. Gourry blinked, hard, several times, his hands still on her shoulders.

"That's it? You're hysterical over a little slug?" he said incredulously. Lina started to cry.

"Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" she shrieked, her voice high pitched and frantic. Obediently, Gourry picked the small thing off her blanket and tossed it into the woods behind them.

"There. It's gone, okay?"

Lina seemed to be shaking too hard to answer him. Her hands rubbed up and down her arms, fingers clawing at the skin, as if she felt hundreds of slugs oozing all over her. Gourry grabbed her hands and held them tightly in his own. He frowned to see several scratch marks actually oozing small amounts of blood. Lina squirmed, fighting to pull her hands back.

"Lina, Lina, stop it," Gourry said, really concerned now. "You're hurting yourself."

Lina looked at him, a crazed look in her eyes. "Are there any more? Gods, I can feel them crawling on me!"

Gourry pulled her into his lap, rubbing his hands up and down her arms and back. Sobbing, Lina buried her head in his neck. He could feel that she was still shaking uncontrollably under his hands.

"There aren't any more, Lina. There aren't any slugs on you. You're safe, I'll protect you," Gourry said quietly, soothingly. Lina kept shaking, and he kept rubbing his hands over her arms, her back, trying to calm her. Slowly, her sobs quieted into little hiccups and shuddering breaths, and Gourry breathed a sigh of relief.

It was odd, and unsettling, to have Lina helpless and frightened in his arms. Lina, who was never afraid. Lina, who never needed anyone. But here she was, cradled on his lap, her head tucked into his neck, her warm breaths tickling his neck, and dear gods, it felt so good. She didn't seem inclined to move, so Gourry closed his eyes, his hands still rhythmically running over her small back and arms. Lina didn't seem to mind; in fact, she snuggled in even tighter to him as her shaking subsided. Gourry's breathing became heavier at the feel of her body under his hands, pressed up against him. Emotions and desires too long repressed under the surface of easy, brotherly camaraderie surged forcefully upwards, and he had to fight hard to keep his hands from wandering to places he knew Lina would not appreciate. He cursed a thousand curses on the fact that she saw him only as a friend and a protector. Gods, he wanted to be so much more. He may not be as smart as most people, and he may not be able to remember what he had done yesterday, but he knew with undeniable certainty that Lina was the one woman he wanted. He'd stay with her until he died, as just her protector, if that's what she wanted. But oh—times like now made that so hard!

Gourry barely suppressed a deep groan as Lina sighed and lifted her head from his neck. Gods, he just wanted few more moments of heaven! But he stopped moving his hands as Lina pulled away from him far enough to look into his face.

"Gourry…" she breathed, her voice slightly hoarse from her screams.

Gourry opened his eyes slowly to look down at her. "Yeah, Lina?"

"Gourry, I…" Lina's voice was barely a whisper. Her eyes, deep and dark in the dying firelight, seemed filled with an indefinable question. She bit her lip, and suddenly Gourry couldn't take his eyes off her mouth. The logical part of his brain stopped thinking, and he bent his head and kissed her.

For a moment, she went stiff in his arms, and Gourry's brain almost kicked back into gear. But then she seemed to melt against him, returning the kiss with a passion that rivaled his own. Gourry had never felt more out of control in his entire life.

Later, much later, when they had pulled apart, Gourry stared at Lina with the goofiest grin she had ever seen on his face.

"What?" she asked defensively.

"I was just thinking that I really love slugs," he answered. Lina narrowed her eyes and pulled her arm back to smack him into the ground. Gourry laughed, leaned in, and kissed her again.


	5. Love and Hate

**Love and Hate**

**AN: **_So, this one's a Xellos/Filia one. Sort of! Anyway, I'm just glad I've finally found some time to update! I hope you enjoy! Thanks to all the reviewers of my past postings. I really love you!_

"Filthy Namagomi!" Filia shrieked, smashing the large, round table into splinters with her mace. Lina, Gourry and Amelia dived for cover from the irate Golden Dragon as she swung wildly at Xellos' laughing form. The innkeeper cowered behind the bar and begged them to stop destroying his inn as the remaining few customers fled out the nearest door. Zelgadis watched the scene from his own private table, sipping his coffee calmly and pretending not to know the woman with the long, ribbon-bedecked tail and giant mace.

"My, my, Miss Filia. Such an nasty temper you have!" Xellos teased as he dodged another attack. Lina grabbed him from behind and pinned him to the floor, a dangerous glint in her eye.

"Xellos! You idiot! **Look what you made her do!**" she growled, the furious look on her face making even the Mazuko sweat. "My supper is ruined. _Ruined!_"

"But Miss Lina," Xellos whined. "It isn't my fault Filia can't control her temper!"

Filia started to make another deadly swing at the pair on the floor, apparently uncaring whether or not she hit Lina, too, as long as she hit Xellos. Gourry caught her arm in mid-swing, and Amelia grabbed her around the waist, begging her to calm down.

"_**Xellos!**_" Lina shouted through clenched teeth. She tightened her choke-hold on Xellos' neck until he gagged.

"But I couldn't help it! Filia's just so easy to tease, you know?" he choked out in a poor attempt to save himself from Lina's wrath. His excuse didn't go over too well with the fiery sorceress, who merely began to pound on him as well as choke him.

"Hey, Lina, don't be too hard on him," Gourry implored. "I mean, teasing might be how demons show their love. Or something."

For a split second, complete silence followed his statement. Lina was so shocked, she accidentally loosened her hold on Xellos, and he managed to crawl out of her reach before she came back to her senses. Zelgadis ruefully wiped up the coffee he had sprayed all over himself, and Amelia picked herself off the floor.

"Gourry! You jellyfish brain!" Lina groaned. "Demons don't show love!"

"That's absolutely right! There's no _way _that filthy Namagomi could feel an emotion as pure as love!" Filia said, disdain and anger dripping like acid from her voice as she haughtily tossed her head.

Xellos ground his teeth together. "For once, we're in perfect agreement. Demons _can't_ feel love."

Gourry scratched his head, looking characteristically confused. "They can't?"

"_**NO!**_" the entire group shouted in unison.

"But..." Gourry continued, still scratching his head. "Filia, don't you hate Xellos?"

Filia stuck her nose up in the air, refusing to even look at the Mazoku. "_Yes. _Absolutely! I hate everything about that _horrible monster_!"

"So, even though the dragons are the servants of the gods, they can feel hate. Wouldn't that mean that demons can feel love?" Gourry reasoned. Stunned silence dominated the room.

"I...guess he could be right..." Amelia finally said in a small, awed voice.

"And when Gourry thinks of something none of us have-" Zelgadis began, but Lina cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah. It doesn't make the rest of us look too good," she muttered. But she got up from the floor to give Gourry a hearty slap on the back. "Hey, way to go, Gourry! You actually figured something out for yourself!"

Gourry beamed at her, one hand behind his head. "Aw, it wasn't so hard to figure it out. Besides, Xellos told Filia he loved her already."

"He _what?_" gasped Lina, Amelia, and Zelgadis together. All three of them locked intense, penetrating stares on the Golden Dragon. She had turned so pale that the whites of her eyes looked yellow next to her skin. Mutely, she shook her head in confusion.

"I heard him," Gourry insisted. "When we were fighting that big demon. Or was it Valgaav? Anyway, I heard him say, "now there's the dragon I love". I know I heard it!"

"Filia, did he really say that?" Amelia gasped in a voice barely above a whisper.

Filia shook herself and swallowed a few times to moisten her dry throat. "Ye- yes. I remember him saying that. But, it couldn't possibly mean-"

"Xellos, you sly dog!" Lina crowed out, turning to where Xellos had crawled. Nothing but tables and chairs met her eyes, and the group scanned the room in vain for signs of the mysterious priest. Filia sank weakly into a chair, sipping at a cup of tea in a vain attempt to console herself.

"Huh? Ugh, darn it Xellos! Quit running away!" Lina shouted in frustration. Gourry patted her head sympathetically as she glowered, arms crossed over her chest.

"_My_ supper got ruined because of his stupid crush, and then he runs away before I can make him suffer for it," she growled.

"B-but, Miss Lina, you don't really think...not Miss Filia. He just couldn't!" Amelia stuttered incoherently. Filia gave a rather hysterical laugh and poured herself another cup of tea.

"A Mazoku and a Golden Dragon," Zelgadis mused, sipping his coffee calmly. "That's one of the wierder things I've ever heard."

"This _is_ Xellos we're talking about. This is all probably some horrible trick he's playing on all of us. Especially Filia," Lina stated, still sulking over her ruined feast.

"You think so, Lina?" Gourry asked with a slight frown. "Because he seemed like he was being truthful to me."

Suddenly Amelia clasped her hands in front of her chest, stars forming in her eyes. "Oh, Miss Filia! Think of the good you're doing in the name of Love and Justice! You've turned a horrible, dark, monstrous heart to the beautiful, shining light that is the glowing heart of True Love!"

Filia gagged on her tea, and Lina elbowed Amelia sharply on the head.

"That's enough of that, Amelia. So...Filia. What are you going to do about all this?"

"Do? _Nothing!_ Absolutely nothing!" Filia retorted, slamming her cup down so hard it shattered. "I'm going to forget all about this absurd conversation. Because that's what all of this is. _Absurd!_"

She stormed off up the stairs of the inn. Lina and Amelia exchanged uncertain looks while Zelgadis sipped his coffee and Gourry sifted through the remains of their supper.

Hidden in the shadows, Xellos watched as Filia wrenched open her door and slammed it shut behind her. He could feel the waves of anger and unhappy confusion radiating in waves off of her and drank them in greedily. So delicious, so delicious...

"Yes, it's absurd, my little dragon. Absurd that Gourry figured it out before you," he whispered into the darkness.

"Or me."


	6. A Letter

**A letter**

**AN: **_Whoa! Another drabble! And so soon (for me, that is!). So, this here is a Zel/Amelia (Zelia?) fic, so I hope you enjoy. But **hands off**, all you rabid fan-girls/boys. Zel is **mine**. BWAHAHAHAHA!!_

_Oh, wait. That's only in my fantasies. I guess I don't really own Zelgadis at all. (Somewhere, Zel sighs in relief, and Amelia stops crying from broken heart). Oh well. On with the fic, I guess. _

Zelgadis smoothed the blank sheet of paper on the table in front of him and tapped his pen thoughtfully against the stone of his chin. He shifted, leaned forward and poised to write on the top of the blank sheet. After a long, frozen moment, he drew back, smoothing the paper again.

"You ever gonna start writin', honey?" asked his waitress, refilling his coffee cup. "'Cause I think that's the thousandth time you smoothed that paper."

"Yes, well, I'm just- that is..." Zelgadis stuttered, turning red under her inquisitive stare.

"Whatever it is, it ain't gonna write itself," she said knowingly as she turned her back and headed off to the bar. Zel pounded his head into the table in frustration, inadvertently poking a few holes in the bottom of the paper with his hair.

_Why_ was this so difficult? He wished he'd never made that stupid promise to Amelia to write whenever he had the chance. Now that he'd found a town that was willing to ship a letter to Seyruun, he had no choice but to sit here, giving himself a headache over how to start the stupid letter!

Did he write, "Dear Amelia"? Or did that sound too informal? Should he write "Dear Miss Amelia"? Maybe he should write, "To her royal highness, the Princess Amelia". Or was that too formal? They _were_ friends, after all. But she _was_ the crown princess.

Zelgadis massaged his temple with his left hand as he took a sip of his steaming hot coffee. Okay, he would write "Dear Miss Amelia". Not too formal, but not too friendly, either. Wait, was the "dear" _too_ friendly? Would it make her realize _how_ dear she really was to him? His cheeks turned pink at the thought, and he roughly set his cup down on the table. A bit of coffee sloshed over the edge and stained the edge of the paper.

To hell with it. "Dear Miss Amelia" it would be, and he'd just have to pray to the gods that she'd just take it as a customary greeting. He hastily snatched up his pen and scribbled the words before he could second-guess himself again.

There. He'd written it. Zelgadis let out a huge sigh of relief and slumped back into his chair. He's started the stupid letter, but how in the seven hells was he going to continue it?

He could hardly say that he missed her, enough to even wish he could hear one of her justice speeches again, just to hear her happy voice. Or that she was in his dreams almost every night. Well, nightmares, mostly. Zelgadis frowned. Amelia could never, never know that his nightmares of being transformed into the monster he was had been replaced by nightmares of watching her die at the hands of Hellmaster Phibrizzo. He could still, after all this time, feel the weight of her empty body in his arms. But he couldn't tell her that.

Zelgadis chewed moodily on his pen, unaware that his sharp chimera teeth had bitten the end off of it. The ink dripped down his chin like black blood and stained the paper with dark droplets.

He couldn't tell her that he looked at her bracelet everyday and thought of her. And that it brought a smile to his face even in the most desolate and lonely situations. And it was out of the question to mention how he imagined what she was doing at the Palace in Seyruun, and how he worried that she might forget about him as the time passed.

So, what did that leave him to write? He sighed again. He twitched, he shifted, he wiped the ink off of his chin and pulled out a new pen. After another moment's deliberation, he hastily scribbled a few brief lines.

Zel sighed as he read it through. It was hardly what he truly wanted to say, but it would have to do. He glanced at the pink star bracelet lying on the table in front of him, then childishly brushed a kiss over the words "Dear Miss Amelia". Disgusted by his own weak impulse, and horrified that the leftover ink on his lips left a very faint mark on the paper, he rubbed his fingers roughly over the spot to erase it. He succeeded in smudging it enough that he was fairly certain Amelia would never guess at his foolish action.

He'd never been so relieved to hand over a piece of paper than he was to send off that letter the next morning.

A little over a month later, Amelia was surprised by an envelope. looking as though it had traveled the world over and been dropped in a mud puddle for good measure, sitting by her breakfast plate. She squealed excitedly when she recognized the handwriting and tore it open eagerly.

_"Dear Miss Amelia," _it read, "_Sorry it took me so long to write, but this is the first town in the outer rim that would send a letter back to Seyruun. I hope it gets to you. I haven't found anything for my cure yet, but I have a few new leads. I hope you are well. From, Zelgadis"_

Amelia sighed, stars shining in her eyes. She hardly noticed the words, since they were exactly what she'd expected Zelgadis to write. She was too busy looking at the paper he'd wrote them on.

The little holes punctured in the bottom were from his hair, she just knew it. _Why_ he'd poked his hair through the paper, she didn't know. But for some reason, those little holes made her memories of him crystal clear. And that stain along the edge was coffee. She could tell by the smell. If she closed her eyes and sniffed it, she could almost imagine that he was sitting across the table from her, trying his best to act aloof and mysterious.

But the ink smudges- oh! That was something special! Right over her name, she could see that he'd tried to rub out an ink mark. And if she squinted just right, and turned the paper just so, the mark looked a lot like it was made by his lips.

Amelia knew that that was hardly possible. There was no way Zelgadis would do something like that, even if he had some kind of feelings for her. She didn't care, though. What harm was there in wishing it was true?

She brushed her own lips over the spot and clutched the letter to her chest. Cure or no cure, she wanted him here with her _now_. But she could be patient. She would wait for him until she died, and maybe even longer, if that's what he wanted.

As long as there was a little glimmer of hope.


End file.
